Physical Literacy Reflection

What a great way to end our group teach lessons for the semester! Elizabeth, Mary, Cheryl, and Rob did a wonderful job of taking all of the skills we have learned this semester, and created a unique and effective lesson!

The instant activity where we got to create letters of the alphabet using our bodies and partners, and then coming together as a group to create “CITE” was a lot of fun, and also provided an opportunity for us to work on our team building skills. This activity would be a great way to get students active in a fun way, as well to develop their group work skills, such as cooperation, giving instruction, and listening skills.

I really enjoyed the warm up and the cool down where the team lead us through an imaginative environment such as a forest and a jungle to stretch and move. I thought the music in the background was a really nice touch, and definitely sets the mood for the activities.

I thoroughly enjoyed the main activity, where the group set up several different stations that each focused on a certain skill that we had learned throughout the year. I especially liked how the group had activities that incorporated mental health, such as the meditation centre and the positivity wall.

What I think is really great about having a variety of stations and allowing students to explore them is that students are able to have a sense of ownership and choice in the classroom. They are able to become innovative and use their imaginations, such as when a group of us started a game of “hungry hippo”, even though it wasn’t a designated station.

Movement Journal December 2nd

I really loved today’s group teach. I think it was an awesome idea to present mini games and activites for us to play that can be used in different ways during our own practicum experiences. My favourite was the maze game. Chris, Maymie and Julie placed coloured circles onto the ground and created a code. They then split us into two groups and the point was for each group to complete the maze by stepping on the correct colour all the way to the end without talking to one another. One person began, if they stepped on the correct colour our teachers would stay silent, if they picked the incorrect colour our teachers would make a beep sound that would signal our cue to restart. I thought this was such a cool team building exercise and is something I can really see myself using with my grade fives. Some modifications we discussed were spreading the circles out to encourage students to jump from one to the other, adding an extra component of skill building exercise and coordination. Chris also suggested moving the circles even closer together, and when the player steps on the wrong circle he or she has to take a lap of the gym. This adds exercise as well as an extra component of difficulty, as the person would have been running around the gym instead of watching their teammates and learning the code. Playing games which involve communication skills besides talking is a good learning tool for both teachers and students. It’s important to remember that not everyone will be comfortable with their words, so encouraging communication through other avenues is key. Great job!

Movement Journal November 18th

Today’s group teach was really interesting and I feel the activities we did are things I can see myself implementing in my own gym class. The first activity we did was a small warm-up of a lap around the gym to get our heart rates up. Elixa, Sheena and Kate then instructed us on how to measure our heart rates, which we did after our lap and recorded on our worksheets. After recording, we did a dance aerobics routine. This was so fun, I really enjoyed the music. After this segment we re-measured our heart rates and recorded them again to evaluate if anything had changed from our previous record. After this we did a choreographed dance segment, which was fast paced and engaging too. We recorded our heart rates again and then moved into yoga. Yoga was obviously slower paced and more relaxing so my heart rate went down. I think this was a really great way to introduce a new area of health and physical literacy to the class. Knowing how to find your heart rate and being aware of what a healthy heart rate is for resting and exercise is so important and teaches students responsibility in their own health. I think this group did an awesome job of encouraging physical literacy and new knowledge for us!

Final week

This was a great way to end the course. It consolidated everything that we have been learning about when it comes to making physical literacy part of everyday life of students. What better way to do that then to work in into different curricular areas. Hearing everyone’s ideas facilitated the idea of creating a drop box in which all of the students within the cohort could submit their lessons for future use. My only issue was that there were two different groups that were presenting that day and it didn’t seem as though there was enough time to do both. If two groups had presented in the penultimate week, it wouldn’t have been so bad; we would still have been pressed for time in that class but the last class seemed to be unfinished. With the yoga group unable to get to all areas of the lesson that they wanted to, the lesson seemed as though it were left hanging. I believe that there should have been more of a warm-up for it but there didn’t seem as though there was enough time. Because of this my hip is still hurting a week afterwards and I am thinking of going to see a doctor about it.

Week 2 ABC Cohort Target Games

On Tuesday Sept. 22nd

We had our first presenters and it was great. The warm up that Claire did was awesome. Opened up my imagination and created a safe place to have fun and engage in this classroom, the gym. Then we went outside to the field for Target Games. It was a great demonstration especially since the part of thinking positive and self thoughts and reflections are totally human nature. I was once told, we are our worst critics.

We all engaged in the target games and lots of positive attitude and positve communication was happening between us, we had paired up to practise throwing, aiming and hitting the target. It was a little competition and from what I observed everyone enjoyed this activity. It was fun and engaging for all ages and I know students in elementary schools would engage and enjoy this PA as well.

ABC cohort last week

Last Tuesday Dec 1st. We had two fantastic groups up to do their group presentations. The first group did a warm up and a fun relay game on “farmers”. It was very different and absolutely interesting for the TC’s to get the students to do the harvesting work outs. Slashing. Picking high and picking low, and doing the chicken run. On to the relay game of farming. We were put into groups of four and raced each other to the other end of the gym and each of us had a food group to search for the daily amount of each food group. It was so much fun and laughter.
The second group presented a yoga meditation, warm-up, and yoga work out. It was very good and interesting as well. However I was very tired and felt exhausted from the first group presentation. As we relaxed into the first meditation (warm-up) my mind was concentrating on deep breathing (inhaling & exhaling) and soon I realised that I was the only one who did not have my right had over my heart and my left hand on my stomach as we did the deep breathing. It was a funny moment on my part. One other classmate caught my reaction and we laughed quietly together. Yoga was more then I thought it would be. It was relaxing but some of those positions that I had to hold was actually quite difficult as my body was telling me “you’re done!” I kept doing what I could.. My right shoulder was feeling the pain and I remember that because I had difficult time to reach up to the sky at this time during the yoga work-out. I think that all the presenters were very enthusiastic about the presentation of the groups choice. It was a great day to learn of how new things, as these two presentations gave me a better insight and playful of how to be a farmer and the concentrating and having a strong mind for the yoga class was fantastic and very interesting.


 

Katy Machut’s Movement Journal for Ch10 Pe, Safety and law

I was surprised to read that teachers can get sued in the context of teaching physical education. I agree that the voluntary assumption of risk clause would be difficult to figure out with children. At some level children may have a sense that an activity might be dangerous but may not be able to form a decision about weather to participate in it or not. However, I question, the idea of the responsibility to be put on children to exempt themselves from an activity if they feel there is too much risk. I foresee children as hesitating to step out of the activity for fear of being marked as “not participating” such as gymnastics.

I think it is noteworthy to reiterate that educators should not be afraid to teach Physical education because of a remote change of being sued. I believe that educators should focus on prevention whenever possible and foresee risk while not getting overwhelmed with the potential of accidents or injury.

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